ShareSoc Seminar, new Patisserie CEO and Brexit

I attended the ShareSoc AGM and Company Presentations Seminar last night. The AGM was routine but a couple of points are worth noting: 1) Total membership increased to almost 4,000 in 2017 and I gather it has increased further since – partly from the Beaufort campaign; 2) Lord Lee, a well-known writer for the FT on small cap stocks, has become “Patron”. Anyone reading this who has not yet become a full, subscribing Member of ShareSoc should do so because they do an enormous amount of good work for investors.

As regards the company presentations, here is some brief coverage of the first three:

Ilika (IKA): This company produces solid-state batteries which have advantages over other battery types for certain applications. I first saw this company present to investors a couple of years ago. Revenue is creeping up but losses still exceed revenue. As last time, there seem to be some business opportunities but major revenue growth and profits do not appear to be likely in the short term. They might have interesting technology but can they sell it at a profit and in volume? Until they can prove this, I don’t think it’s a company in which I will consider investing.

Pelatro (PTRO): This company provides marketing software to telecoms companies. The company was only incorporated in January 2017 and listed on AIM in December of that year. They did a placing to raise more funds in August 2017. It’s clearly early days yet but revenue is forecast to grow rapidly. The CEO was a glib and fast talker which somewhat put me off, but he did explain the business reasonably well. This is definitely one I will do more research on. The AIM prospectus is of course available on their web site which is always worth reading for newish listings. However, attempting to print their last Annual Report caused Internet Explorer to hang twice, which is somewhat annoying.

Forbidden Technologies (FBT): This company provides technology to edit and manage videos using a proprietary codec. At least that is so far as I could understand it. The company has been listed on AIM for years but has been consistently loss making and revenue last year was still less than £1 million. There were a couple of existing disgruntled shareholders in the audience. The company came across as having some interesting technology but no very clear focus on who they were going to sell it to, what the USP was, what the competitors are, etc. Was it to be sold to major platform operators, or consumers? Looks like a typical company founded by technologists who don’t have strengths in sales and marketing – a very typical UK story. I could not see that the outlook will change because the presenters could not even sell the company to investors.

Perhaps I am being harsh on Ilika and Forbidden Technologies. But technology companies and their managers do need to learn that there is more to business than having a good idea and some bright technical staff.

The interesting news today was that Patisserie Holdings(CAKE) CEO Paul May has departed and a new CEO with a CV as long as your arm on “turnarounds” has been appointed with immediate effect. It’s hardly surprising that Paul May has left. The previous CFO went promptly after the alleged fraud was discovered but internal systems seem to have been very lax with the CEO not knowing about winding-up petitions and bank overdrafts. I hope he will be returning the bonus shares he obtained based on the false accounts.

Incidentally there will be a discussion on Patisserie at the Mello London event run by David Stredder on the 26th November – see http://melloevents.com/mello-london/ . The Mello events are always interesting for investors in small cap companies.

Brexit

One reader of my blog suggested that politics was off topic for this blog and I should stick to investment matters. But the blog does cover wider issues occasionally including economics, politics, corporate governance, management, transport, art, London events and other issues. Yes I do have a very broad range of interests! But Brexit is so key to the future financial health of the UK economy, and hence to investors in it, that it would be remiss not to cover it to some degree. No doubt that it is the reason why the Financial Times goes on about it endlessly.

Now I think the best comment on the current position was given in this tweet by my M.P., Bob Neill: “With all respect to some of my colleagues, pontificating about the draft deal Theresa May has secured before they have even read the text does not do justice to the seriousness of the issues at stake. The country deserves better than that and any proposals deserve a fair hearing.

Although I am keen on many aspects of Brexit and hope it can be achieved without too much in the way of compromises, and with a practical solution, we certainly should not rush into any decision on the matter. This is not the time for emotion, or grandstanding.

Anyone who has read the whole 585 pages of the draft withdrawal agreement is welcome to post some comments on this blog of course. There’s a challenge for you!